Life becomes easier for RuPay card holders

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Here are the top personal finance news of the day:

If you use RuPay plastic cards then this news is for you. If you use RuPay plastic cards for making transactions, then, you will no more be required to enter the CVV number while making transactions. This feature will be available for those citizens who have tokenised their cards. This feature will not be available for those who have not tokenised their cards. Last year, the Reserve Bank of India had made it mandatory for citizens to allow online merchants to ask customers to tokenise card transactions. They are no more required to enter whole 16 digit debit or credit card number. Now, citizens will also get rid of hassle of entering the three digit cvv number. Apart from RuPay, Visa has already implemented the CVV free feature on its plastic cards.

Chance for employees to own Infosys

IT giant Infosys has allotted shares to its employees under two different schemes. This will increase ownership of employees in the company. Infosys has given shares to attract, retain and motivate talented and critical employees. Infosys decision has come at a time when IT companies are deploying cost cutting measures to fight looming threat of recession in the world. Infosys had even cut variable pay of its employees in April, this year. Wipro had asked its employees to sit for exams to continue working. Other tech companies have even fired employees during this uncertain situation. In this scenario, Infosys decision will give relief to employees and other IT companies must learn from it.

FIIs net buyers of equities in May 2023, as well

FPIs have been investing thick and fast in India‘s equity market. All of a sudden they have been investing dramatically over the last two in a half months. Before that they were largely net sellers of equities in the last financial year. FPIs inflow has taken a u-turn and it has continuously increased investment since March of this year. Talking about current month, they have bought shares worth 8,643 crore rupees in April, 2023. Before this, they were net buyers of equities for the month of March also. According to experts, FIIs have been net buyers because of recent correction in the market. Sectors they are investing are financials, capital goods and autos. According to experts, FIIs inflow is expected to remain robust in coming times as well. Reason why they have again turned bullish in India are lower chances of further rate hikes by the US Fed, strong domestic macro outlook and good earning season.

Are we heading towards deflation?

Wholesale Price Index-based food inflation has fallen in negative territory for the first time in nearly last three years. April’ 2023 WPI has come at -0.92%. Inflation has fallen consecutively in last 11 months. A negative WPI inflation is technically termed as deflation. Inflation has fallen due to fall in prices of commodities leading to fall in prices of food articles. prices of cereals, wheat, fruits, milk, egg, meat and fish have declined over the previous month. Fall in WPI comes in line with the easing of April retail inflation which came in at an 18-month low of 4.70 per cent. Ladderup Wealth Management MD Raghvendra Nath said the fall in WPI is likely to have a positive impact on retail prices.

BSE’s good news for options & futures traders

Now, you will be able to trade with only 10 shares in a single lot in features and options contract on Sensex. While, on Bankex, you will be able to trade contracts of just 15 shares in a single lot. Earlier, traders would have to trade more number of stocks in a single lot. But BSE has reduced the number of shares with which you can trade a single lot of futures and options contract. This will deepen liquidity in the stock market. Plus, the contracts will expire on Friday of every week instead of Thursday. Both Sensex and Bankex are indices of the BSE.

System put in place to track lost smartphones

If your smartphone has been stolen or you have lost your phone due to your own negligence then, this news is a must for people like you. From May 17, onwards, police will be easily able to track lost or stolen smartphones in the country. A new tracking system is ready in the country using which police will be able to block and track those smartphones which have been lost or stolen. Police will be able to track those smartphones who IMEI number has been changed. Because government has made it mandatory for telecom service providers to link IMEI numbers with phone number of the smartphone. The moment anybody changes the IMEI number, police will be able to track that smartphone with the help of telecom service provider. Apple already has a system to track lost mobile phones with the help of Apple ID. but major issues have been around Android mobile phones. With the new system in place, it has become easier to track Android based mobile phones as well!

Oppo F23 5G launched at Rs 24,999 on Amazon

Oppo, kick starts taking pre-orders of Oppo F23 5G smartphone on Amazon. The 64 mega pixel smartphone is available at a price of 24,999 rupees on Amazon. The 13 mega pixel camera smartphone is available in gold and black shades. It sports a 6.7 inch screen LCD screen, runs on Android 13, has 32 mega pixel selfie camera, and 5,000 mAh battery. The smartphone houses 8 GB RAM with 256 GB storage capacity.

NFO collection falls 42% YoY in FY23

Mutual funds’ collection through fresh schemes have fallen 42 per cent year on year in FY23 and have came just above 62,300 crore rupees. According to experts, people became reluctant to invest in NFOs in FY23 because of factors like highly volatile market, and FPI outflows. Mutual fund collections have fallen in the fiscal despite of fund houses launching more number of NFOs in FY23 than what they did in the preceding year. Gopal Kavalireddi, Head of Research at FYERS, said that all NFOs are not the same and have their pros and cons for investment. According to him, an NFO has no performance record which retail investors can research and decide to chip in or stay away. Kaustubh Belapurkar, Director, at Morningstar, advised investors to invest in NFOs only if they offer something unique and bridge a gap in their existing portfolios. Most investors are best served by continuing to invest in similar existing funds with well-established track records.

Silver ETFs on the rise

Silver ETFs are once again rising and shining as an asset class among investors. If we look at the NSE data then that will give us a better picture. As of March 31, the total assets under management which is the AUM as they call it for silver ETFs stood at 1,792 crore rupees. Now this is only small portion of the overall 5.07 lakh crore rupees AUM of ETFs in India across categories. Experts opine that its an easier opportunity to hold the metal in the electronic format than have it physically. In fact they went on to say that silver was more in demand for industrials. As of March 31, there were seven ETFs.